Sunday, February 11, 2018

South
Korea on Saturday investigated a mysterious internet shutdown during
the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, which follows warnings of
possible cyberattacks during the Pyeongchang Games.

Internal
internet and wifi systems crashed at about 7:15 pm (1015 GMT) on
Friday and were still not back to normal at midday on Saturday, Games
organizers said.

Cyber-security
teams and experts from South Korea's defence ministry, plus four
other ministries, formed part of a taskforce investigating the
shutdown, they said, adding that it didn't affect the high-tech
opening ceremony.

… The
outage follows warnings
of malware phishing attacks targeting organizations working at
the Olympics, and allegations of cyberattacks from Russia – which
has denied any involvement.

“You
can secure some of the data all of the time, and all of the data some
of the time, but you can’t secure all of the data all of the time.”
(With apologies to Abe Lincoln)

Lost
confidential papers, leaked email addresses and the release of
sensitive personal information were just some of the 4000 “data
security incidences” recorded by the UK Government recorded last
year.

Data uncovered by the SNP has revealed
that in one case an assault victim’s new name and address was
inadvertently sent to the perpetrator of the crime as part of an
amended restraining order.

The Ministry of Justice said the affected
individual and the Information Commissioner’s Office were notified
and an investigation was launched. It did not disclose a conclusion.

Meanwhile, Whitehall’s Education
Department mistakenly sent full application forms from 14 teachers
containing personal data to a contractor, left official papers in
taxis, and published actual grammar tests online instead of practice
versions.

GDPR:
Europe's new privacy law will hand a huge advantage to American tech
companies

New online privacy laws going into effect in
Europe this spring will hand a huge advantage to large American tech
companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon, at the expense of
smaller European publishers and advertising companies, according to
research from five different investment analysts, seen by Business
Insider.

… Two new laws will come into effect in the
European Union, including Britain, sometime after May this year. The
first, called "the General Data and Privacy Regulation"
(GDPR), requires tech companies to get affirmative consent from any
user for any information they gather on you.

The second, "the ePrivacy law," governs
tracking cookies, and requires tech companies to get affirmative
permission from consumers for every cookie they use, each time they
use them. The laws apply to any company that does business in
Europe, even if they are based outside the continent. So most
American tech companies have to obey this, too.

… Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen and his team
describe it this way (emphasis in the original):

"For each cookie dropped, both publishers and
consumers will need to ask if the placement of the cookie improves
the internet experience in order to be in compliance. Companies will
thus be forced to justify and may need to acquire consent for each
cookie that they place on each user. Each time.”

… GDPR contains some exceptions for companies
that have ongoing direct relationships with their users. Amazon,
Facebook, Google and Apple all require logins, and thus will find
obtaining consent from their users easier, according to Goldman Sachs
analyst Lisa Yang and her team. A
login could function as pre-existing consent for all future visits.
She recently told clients:

“We think organisations that have a direct and
trusted relationship with clients and can demonstrate a clear value
exchange are more likely to gain user consent (e.g. renowned brands
and publishers, GOOGL, FB, AMZN), while those that rely on
third-party data for targeting purposes with no direct user
relationship may find it more challenging (e.g. ad tech, ad
agencies). In our view, coping with the new requirements and costs
associated is also likely to be more difficult for the smaller
players (be it ad tech, brands or publishers)."

Join on Monday at 3pm EST for a free
webinar about inquiry-based learning. The webinar, sponsored by
Xplorlabs by Underwriters Laboratories, will feature strategies for
using inquiry-based learning, the role of the teacher in
inquiry-based learning, and research on the benefits of inquiry-based
learning. We'll take a look at how Xplorlabs's Fire
Forensics: Claims and Evidence online learning experience can be
used in an inquiry-based learning setting.

Links

About Me

I live in Centennial Colorado. (I'm not actually 100 years old., but I hope to be some day.) I'm an independant computer consultant, specializing in solving problems that traditional IT personnel tend to have difficulty with... That includes everything from inventorying hardware & software, to converting systems & data, to training end-users. I particularly enjoy taking on projects that IT has attempted several times before with no success. I also teach at two local Universities: everything from Introduction to Microcomputers through Business Continuity and Security Management. My background includes IT Audit, Computer Security, and a variety of unique IT projects.